MORE than 5 000 Egyptians gathered after prayers at the al-Azhar mosque, Egypt’s largest, to vent their anger Friday against the United States and Britain. “Down with the United States, down with Britain. Long live the Muslims,” chanted the demonstrators, who included representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood and of the Nasserite movement who had arrived as guests of the mosque’s imam, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi. During his sermon, Tantawi restated his position that “no state has the right to punish an entire nation including children, old people and innocent women simply through the misdeeds of one criminal.” He also supported “the right of the Palestinians to defend their land and their faith” against Israeli occupation. “These are mujahedeen and it is our duty to stand at their side,” he added. The secretary general of the Islamist Labour party, Ibrahim Shukri, spoke at the gathering, saying “God, ensure victory for the Taliban over the American miscreants.” One poster held up by a demonstrator read: “Bin Laden, defender of the oppressed.” The demonstration took place peacefully amid a large police presence, with several plainclothes security agents deployed among the faithful and anti-riot trucks stationed near the mosque. – AFP
Friday October 12, 2001